What Is a Marketing Contact in HubSpot?
If you use HubSpot for inbound marketing, one of the most confusing topics you’ll face early on is marketing contacts. Many companies mismanage contact types and end up overpaying for their subscription. As a certified HubSpot Agency with 15 years of CRM and marketing automation experience, Mpire Solutions has helped hundreds of teams correct these issues—saving thousands in monthly costs while improving lead segmentation and campaign accuracy.
Understanding the Concept of a Marketing Contact
In HubSpot, a marketing contact is any contact record you actively engage with through marketing tools such as:
Only marketing contacts count toward your paid marketing contact tier. This model allows businesses to store large contact databases while paying only for the contacts they actually market to.
Real-World Example
Consider Sara, a digital marketing manager for a SaaS startup. She imports 50,000 contacts from previous campaigns, but only 8,000 are active leads. By setting just those 8,000 as marketing contacts, Sara ensures her company pays for 8,000 records—not 50,000—while keeping the rest available for sales or service reference.
What Is a Non-Marketing Contact in HubSpot?
A non-marketing contact is a record stored in HubSpot but excluded from all marketing communications. These contacts:
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Don’t count toward your paid marketing contact limit
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Can still receive 1-to-1 sales or service emails
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Are useful for record-keeping, operations, or internal communication
When to Use Non-Marketing Contacts
You might use this classification for:
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Former customers who opted out of marketing but still need billing support
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Internal team members listed in your CRM
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Suppliers, vendors, or partners not targeted by marketing campaigns
Real-World Scenario
David, a sales operations lead at a manufacturing company, stores 30,000 vendor and distributor contacts in HubSpot. Since they are not part of any marketing activity, he marks them as non-marketing. His database stays clean, accessible, and cost-efficient.
What Does Marketing Mean in HubSpot?
In HubSpot’s ecosystem, “marketing” means actively engaging a contact using HubSpot’s marketing tools. These include:
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Email marketing campaigns
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Social ad audiences
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Landing pages and forms
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Automated workflows targeting specific contacts
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Lead-nurture sequences and marketing reports
When a contact interacts with these tools—or is added to a campaign—HubSpot classifies it as a marketing contact. This ensures you only pay for contacts that are being nurtured or promoted to.
What Is a Marketing Contact Status in HubSpot?
HubSpot tracks contact status to determine whether a contact is marketing or non-marketing for billing and campaign eligibility.
There are two key designations:
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Marketing — Contact will receive marketing communications and count toward your paid tier.
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Non-Marketing — Contact will not receive marketing communications and will not count toward billing.
Tip: Manage Status via Workflows
Set up automated workflows that mark contacts as non-marketing after a defined period of inactivity—say 90 days. This keeps your active list lean and your costs predictable.
Why Managing Marketing Contact Status Matters
Failing to differentiate between marketing and non-marketing contacts can lead to significant overspending. More importantly, poor list segmentation can cause compliance issues with data-privacy laws like GDPR or CAN-SPAM.
Cost Optimization
If you send marketing emails to every contact in your CRM, you’ll pay for all of them—even inactive or unqualified leads. Proper segmentation can reduce costs by 30–60 percent.
Deliverability and Reputation
Engaging inactive contacts increases bounce and unsubscribe rates. HubSpot’s marketing contact system helps maintain list health, improving sender reputation and email deliverability.
Compliance and Privacy
By designating contacts correctly, you can easily comply with opt-out requests and ensure that only consented users receive marketing content.
How to Set Up and Manage Marketing Contacts in HubSpot
1. Access Your Marketing Contacts Settings
2. Select Marketing Contacts in Bulk
Use HubSpot filters to identify who should be in marketing lists (e.g., filled a form, opened an email, clicked an ad).
3. Automate Updates with Workflows
Automate promotions and demotions between marketing and non-marketing statuses based on engagement metrics.
4. Sync with Integrations
When integrating HubSpot with systems like Shopify, BigCommerce, or Salesforce, ensure your sync settings respect marketing contact status to prevent unintentional upgrades.
5. Monitor Monthly Usage
Regularly review reports under Settings → Billing & Usage to ensure you remain within your contact tier.

Real-Life Example: How Mpire Solutions Helped a B2B Firm Save 40% on HubSpot Costs
A B2B software firm approached Mpire Solutions after noticing rising HubSpot bills despite stagnant campaign activity.
After auditing their CRM, we found 65% of contacts were inactive or non-engaged. By reclassifying them as non-marketing and automating future segmentation, the firm:
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Reduced HubSpot costs by 40%
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Improved open rates by 22%
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Increased lead qualification accuracy
This simple but strategic change realigned their marketing spend with real engagement.
Conclusion
Understanding what is a marketing contact in HubSpot is essential for both financial efficiency and marketing performance. Understanding the difference between marketing and non-marketing contacts allows you to:
Whether you’re managing 1,000 leads or 100,000, contact classification directly impacts your ROI. As an experienced HubSpot Company, Mpire Solutions can audit your contact database, optimize your workflows, and ensure your campaigns target only those who truly matter.
FAQs
1. What is a marketing contact in HubSpot?
A marketing contact is a contact record you actively market to using HubSpot’s marketing tools—emails, ads, workflows, and reporting dashboards.
2. What is a non-marketing contact in HubSpot?
A non-marketing contact is stored in HubSpot for sales, service, or record-keeping but excluded from marketing campaigns and billing.
3. What is a marketing contact status in HubSpot?
It’s the designation (marketing or non-marketing) that determines whether a contact is included in campaigns and counts toward your paid contact tier.
4. Can I change a contact from marketing to non-marketing?
Yes, you can manually or automatically change contact status, but updates take effect at the start of the next billing cycle.
5. What does marketing mean in HubSpot?
In HubSpot, “marketing” means communicating with contacts through HubSpot’s marketing tools—emails, ads, and automation workflows—to promote or nurture leads.
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